116: Analogies for Leaders

03/13/25 • 25 min

Sometimes, we can be our own best teachers. We’ve all had leaders we trust, and those we don’t. If we’re lucky, we’ve had leaders we would follow anywhere, and those we would avoid at all costs the next time around. We’ve all had leaders that nurture us and do everything possible to help us grow and succeed, and leaders who want to ensure their own place on the organization chart by holding us down. Reflecting on our leadership experiences and comparing it to our own leadership approach can be enlightening and help us grow into the leader we want to be.

In his book Don’t Just Have the Soup, Alan Heymann provides 52 analogies “for leadership, coaching, and life.” The analogies touch on everyday experiences such as being brought soup instead of salad at a restaurant, elevator rides, road trips, and even the everything you can eat buffet. As they explore several of Alan’s analogies, he and host Brian Gorman give us something else to reflect on...how these experiences we have every day that can serve as analogies to guide and inform how we lead.

Alan Heymann is a speaker, facilitator, Georgetown faculty member, “introvert whisperer,” and recovering journalist and lawyer. You can find Alan on LinkedIn, as well as his own website: peacefuldirection.com.

Brian Gorman is a speaker, author, podcast host and founder and lead coach at TransformingLives.Coach. He identifies as a maverick coach, guiding those who are forging the way as leaders in the 21^st century. You can email Brian ([email protected]) and learn more about his work on his website TransformingLives.Coach.

Previous Episode

115: Rethinking 21st Century Organizational Design and Leadership

The prevailing organizational design model remains the top-down org chart. While some have made adjustments (removing layers, adding “matrixed” relationships), It continues to remain an industrial-age approach to structuring and leading organizations. In today’s episode, Jeffrey Beeson, author of Network Leadership, brings a refreshingly new approach to organizational design and leadership. He and host Brian Gorman explore networked organizations and networked leadership. Drawing on network science, Beeson introduces a few of the underlying principals of the networks we all live and function in every day, and how those apply to organizational life. (30 minutes)

Jeffrey Beeson is a pioneer of Network Leadership - an approach to leadership that relies on the power of connections. He is convinced that groundbreaking innovation can only come from the power of networks. The founder of Ensemble Enabler, he and his team enable companies to leverage the strengths of their employees and gradually transition themselves into network organizations.

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Next Episode

117: The Power of Quiet People

At nine pages, this may be the smallest business book you ever read. That said, it is also one worth re-reading from time to time. In changing the label from “introverts” to “quiet people,” Luke Tobin opens our eyes to the many powers that these individuals bring to the workplace, and to life more generally.

Luke, author of The Power of Quiet People (In a World That Favours Loudness), focuses on seven such powers. In this episode of Qonversations, Luke and host Brian Gorman (both of whom identify as quiet people themselves) explore those powers from both the perspective of the quiet person and that of the person who tends to be louder. In doing so, they share some of their own stories as they examine ways in which quiet people contribute to better outcomes when invited to do so. (15 minutes)

Luke Tobin is a dynamic entrepreneur and accomplished business leader with a proven track record of success across multiple industries. As a 3x exited founder, Luke has demonstrated his ability to build and scale businesses effectively. Currently, Luke is the driving force behind Tobin Capital, a venture capital firm reshaping the old VC model with a fresh, innovative approach to investing. . Luke Tobin’s entrepreneurial journey is marked by his strategic vision, international growth, and consistent delivery of exceptional business results. You can learn more about Luke on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luketobin/) and on his websites: www.luketobin.com and www.tobincapital.co.uk The Power of Quiet People is available at no cost here.